Thursday, July 14

Sonic Library

About a year ago, I finally came to the realization that the Sonics were gone, and that complaining about it wasn't going to change anything.

Call it one of the levels of grief, call it whatever, but I got tired of documenting the evilness and idiocy of the NBA, of the Oklahoma ownership group, of all of it. I loved the Sonics, loved talking about the great players from their (our) history, and, perhaps most of all, loved the stories of players and coaches that I had previously known nothing about. I suppose I finally came to the conclusion that I liked writing and reading about the Sonics and I hated writing and reading about the NBA.

Don't get me wrong; this is not some "players today are spoiled, the game is all about the money now" nonsense. The NBA has always been about the money, and as a business, it should be about the money. No qualms there.

Which is a long-winded way of explaining why I haven't written anything about the new arena plans, or really anything other than stories about Art Harris or Spencer Haywood for awhile. The way I see it, there are plenty of great places to get news and analysis of the arena issue and, being that the concept of taking another city's team makes me ill, I'd rather not be involved in it.

Anyhow, I'm sitting on about a dozen books now that I've read, and about a half-dozen more to go. The plan is to start putting up book reviews of the ones I've completed, as well as asking for help in finding other possibilities. Here's the list so far:

- Over The Rim, by Tom Meschery- Full Court Pressure, by Curt Sampson- Unguarded, by Lenny Wilkens and Terry Pluto- Stand Up For Something, by Spencer Haywood and Bill Libby- Slick Watts' Tales From the Seattle Supersonics, by Slick Watts and Frank Hughes- Black Planet, by David Shields- This Game's the Best, by George Karl- We Still Call Him Coach: The Life and Legacy of Les Habegger, by Doris Pieroth- The Lenny Wilkens Story, by Lenny Wilkens- What's Happenin'?: A Revealing Journey Through the World of Professional Basketball, by Blaine Johnson- Second Wind, by Bill Russell and Taylor Branch

I'm also eager to find another book which seems to be out of print and impossible to find anywhere on the internet called Men of Steal, by the late Mike Kahn. The book is supposed to be a year in the life account of the early 90s Sonics. If you have any info on where I could find the book, please drop a note in the comments. Thanks.